Episode 808 of DHUnplugged, titled 'Bulls in a Bubble Shop,' hosted by John C. Dvorak and Andrew Horowitz, closes out the first half of 2026 with the S&P 500 up roughly 7.5%, the Dow above 52,000, and AI hardware names running like the bulls at San Fermin. The conversation ranges widely across the quarter's dominant storylines, with a deep dive into memory price-fixing allegations that echo the 2005 DRAM case.
The alleged 'ram job' refers to a new U.S. antitrust class action against Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. The hosts note that the same three companies control 90% of DRAM, and plaintiffs allege coordinated supply cuts as conventional DRAM prices jumped roughly 700% over four years. They revisit the 2005 case in which Hynix paid $180 million, Samsung $300 million, and Infineon $160 million. With memory stocks soaring—SanDisk up 780%, Micron up 300%, Western Digital up 240%, Seagate up 226%—the hosts question whether the rally is sustainable if price-fixing claims hold.
Horowitz reserves particular scorn for the Trump Accounts program, a $1,000 Treasury-funded seed for newborns launching July 4. He calls it 'a forced financial literacy experiment wrapped in a political brand name with a socialist starter check to teach capitalism.' The program is pitched as a lesson in ownership and compounding, but Horowitz sees a contradiction at its heart.
Dvorak needles the AI infrastructure narrative, arguing compute is heading back to the desktop via Nvidia Blackwell-powered mini machines, which could leave server farms underutilized and memory prices vulnerable to collapse. The Bank for International Settlements has flagged AI-boom financial-stability risks, while PCE inflation climbs to 4.1%.
Other topics include SpaceX's newly issued investment-grade bonds already underwater, Japan's yen at 162 to the dollar with hints of Bank of Japan 'yentervention,' Chevron's 20-year Project Kilby data-center power deal with Microsoft, Comcast splitting off NBCUniversal and Sky, the Interior Department slashing federal drilling bonds 95% to $25,000, Wendy's brief meme-stock spike after CFO Steve Cyrilus arrived from Potbelly, and gold slipping below $4,000 as Bitcoin sinks to $58,600. Horowitz also previews an upcoming Peter Schiff interview on The Disciplined Investor.
The episode is available at dhunplugged.com and via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and RSS.
